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Saud Memon
Saud Memon (circa 1961 — May 18, 2007) was a Pakistani businessman from Karachi dealing in yarn and textiles.KARACHI: Key suspect in Daniel Pearl case dies Memon was said to own the shed where American journalist Daniel Pearl was killed. Memon was wanted by law-enforcement agencies in the Pearl case for supposedly providing the place where Pearl was beheaded and subsequently buried. However, Memon was never formally charged. Disappearance and involvement During the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl's in January 2002, the police were looking for Memon, an industrialist who reportedly owned the shed where Pearl's remains were found, by January 2003. Memon was named by several arrested members of Harakat ul-Mujahedeen Al-Almi as their chief financial backer and was believed to have fled Pakistan. Memon was reported as being still at large. Suspect Describes Ordeal of Slain ReporterWho Killed Daniel Pearl? In April 2005 it was reported that Memon was one of the trustees of Al-Akhtar Trust International, a charity, the United States Treasury asserted, had tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban. Sources said Memon’s particulars in the ‘Trust Deed’ and the Red Book of the Crimes Investigation Department (CID), Sindh, matched 100 percent.Banned charities asked to provide funding details According to their confessional statements in 2005, the detained militants revealed that three men including senior Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (now in custody in the US), Abdul Rahman and Nasrullah - both Kuwaiti nationals fluent in Arabic, Balochi and Persian - arrived at the scene at the behest of Saud Memon, who was believed to be Al-Qaeda's chief financier in Pakistan, and who owned the house, where Pearl was held and took over the operation. The authoritieswere reportedly still searching for the Kuwaitis. On the day Pearl died, two Pakistani men acting as guards were also present: Ali Khan, arrested several months ago, and Fazal Karim, an employee of Saud Memon.Newsline Special: The Mystery ThickensU.S. designates Al Akhtar trust: Pakistani Based Charity is Suspected of Raising Money for Terrorists in IraqCNN: Special Investigations Unit According to the Associated Press Memon disappeared four years ago in 2003, and was held in "mysterious detention" and released on April 28, 2007,The missing conscience when he was dumped on garbage heap in front of his home in Karachi in very poor health and near death conditionSaud Memon dies in Karachi by unidentified men.'Daniel Pearl detainee' is deadDaniel Pearl ‘refused to be sedated before his throat was cut’ A human rights activist reported Memon to have been badly injured, weighing just 18 kg, having lost his memory, unable to speak and unable to recognize his family members. According to Memon's family, he was abducted in March 2003 from South Africa by FBI agentsPakistan - Amnesty International Report 2008 while on a business trip and later brought to Pakistan and held by intelligence agencies. His brother, Mahmood Memon, said the family learned only this year from another detainee, who had been released that Memon was in Pakistan Picture of Secret Detentions Emerges in Pakistan and that "we don’t know who had been holding him for the past over four years, but my brother had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or Daniel Pearl’s murder".Owner of shed where Pearl was slain dies His sister said he was not connected to Al Qaeda or Pearl's death.Man with links to Pearl case dies An review of Bernard-Henri Lévy's book 'Who killed Daniel Pearl?', published in the Asia Times on June 28, 2003 said:Book Review: Who killed Daniel Pearl? Mr. Mansfield of the CIA declined to comment on Memon’s case, saying, "The C.I.A. does not, as a rule, comment on allegations regarding who has, or has not, been in its custody." Five days after he was freed, Memon appeared in a wheelchair before the Supreme Court in Islamabad. Reporters in court said he appeared to be in very poor physical condition.Owner of shed where Daniel Pearl was slain dies Pakistani police officials said they wanted to question Memon, but no charges had been laid against him. Human rights groups have said they suspect that Memon and several others were held in secret extrajudicial detention by Pakistani intelligence agents probing Pearl's slaying. Amina Masood Janjua, Memon's lawyer and a human rights activist for missing Pakistanis, said, Memon was in the custody of Pakistani intelligence officials. A senior police official named Manzoor Mughal, investigating Pearl's murder, denied knowing that Memon had ever been in Pakistani custody.Owner of shed where Pearl was slain dies According to Asra Q. Nomani, a long time colleague of Daniel Pearl's, Pakistani papers reported that Saud Memon had been held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. However, Saud Memon's name was not on the final official lists of Guantanamo captives, released on May 15, 2006. Death Memon died 2.30 PM on Friday, May 18, 2007 in the ICU of the private Liaquat National hospital - close to 3 weeks after his release. His death was attributed to complications related to meningitis and tuberculosis according to Dr Ali Azmat Abidi of the hospital. Memon leaves behind his wife, four sons and a daughter, who declined to talk to the press. Torture controversy An article from the November 12, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed senior US counter-terrorism official, who said he was : The Wall Street Journal also quoted an unnamed Pakistani official who said that Saud Memon was held in the American Bagram Theater detention facility, and that he was already in poor condition, when the American repatriated him to Pakistani custody. Human rights organization, Amnesty International, also expressed concerns about the fate and whereabouts of hundreds of people remained unclear and they were feared to be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment referring to Memon and his whereabouts during 2003-2007 and his death. They were said Memon contracted tuberculosis while in alleged US custody.Document - United States of America: A case to answer. From Abu Ghraib to secret CIA custody: The case of Khaled al-Maqtari International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also noted Memon as one of the missing persons to resurface, as victims of abuse "revealing the existence of centers and places of illegal detention, inhuman and degrading treatment suffered, and confessions extracted under torture."FiDH report 2007-2008 See also * Bagram torture and prisoner abuse * Missing persons (Pakistan) References External links * * Saud Memon dies in hospital * Take Out The Hood Category:1963 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Deaths from meningitis Category:Deaths from tuberculosis Saud Saud Memon Category:Infectious disease deaths in Pakistan Category:Pakistani businesspeople Category:People from Karachi